Requiem of a smoker

Requiem of a smoker

Smoking was not a priority. Being part of the gang was. I started sometime late in the college, just a borrowed puff. As I got to technical school, it was something you did hurriedly every evening, taking permission to go out of campus and rushing back before the gates closed.

Campus to job was easy and away from home smoking became unapologetic. Marriage happened and then children. That was the first time I honestly reviewed the habit with some concern. I promised to myself that I will not smoke in front my children.

There was times when normal mouth ulcers made me anxious and I would resolve to stop smoking and I did. Nothing lasted more than a couple of months.

Then I met Marc woods. A English swimmer, whose leg was amputated due to cancer when he was 17, but had the resolve to succeed and lead his team to a Paralympics relay win way back in 1998. Google him and you can find more about him.

He was a motivational speaker at a leadership summit that I was part of. The part that caught my attention was his preparation for the Olympics. What keeps four people motivated for four years to prepare for that moment !

Marc spoke about getting up every day, early morning about 4 Am to go to the swimming pool mostly on very cold days. His secret was simple. He came up with five things that motivated him to win the medal. And on any day he had a difficulty to get up, one of these five things came to his mind and pushed him to get up.

I forgot about Marc and went on with life until a very bad mouth ulcer hit me. I was in panic again and I decided that life cannot go on like this. That is when Marc came back into my mind and life again. I started looking for motivation to stop smoking. It was during this time that I was going to a cancer home to spend the evening with a close family, whose mother was in her late stages of cancer.

My mind had horrible visions of some of these pictures and then I remembered my two children, their faces happy and smiling. It would not take much for everything to change.

September 9th, 2008 a smoker died. Every time he tries to wake up, up two happy faces come dancing by and and he goes back to his sleep.